Sero et Umbra
by XT-421
Summary: AU from Seed of Love. Cosmo and Shadow are left behind after the final fight with Dark Oak unbeknownst to a greiving Tails. Can they make it to Mobius? Can they survive? Will Cosmo's love for Tails remain unfaltering? Find out in this norm-defying story!
1. A Second Chance

**I always have long talks to my audiance before I begin a new story.**

**Ok, to those of you who don't know me, hello, I'm Joe, or XT, whichever you'd prefer. I write. A lot. I write about things that interest me. I write myself into my stories. I am probably not too different from you. I am going to college. I don't always have time to update my stories. I love writing all the same.**

**A while back, I was tempted with a very interesting idea, and it evolved, (or rather, mutated) into a very scary thought. Let it be known before you even read this story:**

**"I AM A TAILSMO FAN"**

**Interesting, right? How, then, could a TailsXCosmo fanboy write a story about Cosmo and Shadow? :O Yeah, it is very interesting.**

**There is a very particular person I want to read this story, however, I imagine that he/she will not. They already dislike the way my flagship series (Seed of Love) ended, and disabled my account from ever commenting on their own stories (lol, though I like their stories.)**

**THAT ASIDE. (My apologies that was off topic.) I wrote this story, and am still writing it as of yet. It is interesting. It is the story of a young girl who loves a boy, who is stuck with a different man to take her home. Will she develop feelings for this man as harships test their teamwork? Will they survive these trials? Will she ever be reunited with her beloved two tailed friend?**

**Only Time can tell.**

**I bid thee all a well adieu!**

**Enjoy!**

**

* * *

**

I was there. They didn't see me, but I was there. I, XT-421, matchmaker and time-traveler extraordinaire, watched as Tails pressed the button that killed his beloved. I watched, painfully I might add, as he had his meltdown as he weighted the life of this one girl against the existence of the whole universe. Secretly, I wanted him to put her life over the universes. How cute would that be? I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, the love shared between two people _should_ be more important that the whole universe. Sure, they wouldn't have lived very long, but that's ok, they would have died happy.

But, by shooting her, he gave me a job.

Perhaps you don't know me yet, but, I love this kind of stuff. Helping others hook up with their true loves, stuff of legends! Luckily, I didn't have to do anything, yet.

You see, the moment Shadow and Sonic collided into that beautiful tree, Cosmo and Lucas were instantly vaporized, killing both of them. Now I don't really know how it worked, because I'm not a huge fan of souls and spirits, but my brother James is. I asked _him_ what happened, and he told me it was because her soul was still lingering, apparently _that_ was who Tails was talking to after his own meltdown.

Anyways, Shadow and Sonic both used the Chaos Regeneration ability, in any vain attempt to save Cosmo, and it worked. But, because the light from the explosion was so strong, no one really realized that it did, and, by some stretch, one of Cosmo's seeds that she spewed when she was a tree fell into Sonic's hand. Shadow on the other hand, was floating right next to Cosmo.

Then, Shadow plays hero, punches Sonic and throws him to the Blue Typhoon and Crimson Egg, and then uses a mass Chaos Control on everything in the immediate area, all under the false impression that the explosion was going to be energy, rather than just light and planet eggs. Fleshies are _so_ stupid sometimes. But alas, their mess-ups give me something to clean.

So if you've actually been following me this whole time, you can see where we're at. Sonic is with Tails, the latter, wailing his eyes out because he thinks he killed Cosmo, which he did, but he thinks she's still dead. And Shadow is with Cosmo, both floating in a field of beautiful light which is warming their bodies, and gently massaging a few of their wounds due to the light's Planet Egg and Chaos Emerald Energy.

I'll tell you when I actually come into the story, but other than that, we'll go to a live-action point of view here.

* * *

Cosmo floated freely in space. She felt weak, but she didn't know why. In fact, she didn't feel like she _knew_ anything. _What's going on? What happened?_ She felt very warm, like her energy was flowing back into her, just like waking up in the sun, too lazy to get up and move, but feeling alive enough to feel the desire to do something. Upon opening her eyes, she felt very alive again. Light was everywhere, it was like heaven. _Heaven! I was shot!_

This thought woke her from her drowsy stupor immediately. Fully opening her eyes, she began to look around. She was drifting in space. Something bright was near. Was it an explosion? She had no idea.

_*Thump*_

_What was that?_

Cosmo turned to see Shadow, completely unconscious next to her in space. At first, she gasped, scared with the memories of when he tried to kill her, particularly the cold face of his when he told her to close her eyes, all in the intentions of making her death quick and painless.

Then she remembered what Shadow had done to help everyone, and was felt a little sympathy for him. _He must've died with me..._ Cosmo took his hand, and held it close, afraid to drift away alone.

"Ugggh..." Shadow moaned. Even unconscious, he was still agitated by something.

"Shadow? Shadow, wake up." Cosmo shook him gently.

"Huh?" He questioned, his voice low and muffled.

"Did you die when you hit me?" Cosmo asked, it was an odd question. _If I'm dead I'd better get used to it._

"What? No... I don't... die." Shadow groaned, struggling to maintain a steady train of thought. His eyes were still shut, and his face was still scowling.

"But I'm dead..." Cosmo pondered aloud.

"Cosmo?" Shadow's eyes peered open for a moment, then flashed wide, as if he'd seen a ghost. "Cosmo! So it did work."

"What worked?"

"Sonic and I, we used Chaos Regeneration on you, to bring you back." Shadow closed his eyes, temporarily content; he hadn't failed a mission after all.

"So if I'm not dead..." Cosmo still wondered aloud, "I can still see Tails? He, I think he... I think he told me he loved me!" She smiled a smile brimming with joyous elation.

Shadow just nodded, his scowl never ceasing.

"But wait... how'd we get here?"

Shadow opened his eyes again, and looked around. He shook off Cosmo's grip on his arm, and spun to view the space around him.

_Shit... We're in the middle of nowhere, with no way to move anywhere..._ Shadow thought in a growly mood.

"Shadow?" Cosmo asked worriedly as she drifted slowly away from him. Instinctively, she grabbed his arm again.

"Yeah... We're in trouble..." Shadow muttered, looking around for anything that they could use.

Shadow's left bracer was drifting off, away from them, and none of the Chaos Emeralds were within seeing range. No rocks. Only Planet Eggs that rushed away from the bright ball of light, and if those hit, they'd be in more trouble than harm.

Shadow reached for his power bracer silently, but he could gain no momentum. His shoes were as out of power as he was. He drifted helplessly with his face of stone, watching the ring vanish into oblivion.

* * *

_THIS_ is where I come in.

* * *

Shadow watched as a speck of light appeared behind the bracer.

"Shadow, look at that! There's a hole forming in that light!" Cosmo announced. Slowly, the hole grew, and a robotic, clawed hand, spiky and made of a silvery alien material unknown to Shadow and Cosmo, reached forth, and grabbed the ring. As the hole widened, a face appeared, and a humanoid machine stretched its head into the dimension.

"Mobius, eh? Well, good thing I've mastered this dialect before! Oh, Shadow, are you missing this?" The robot spoke as it glided into the space around them effortlessly, powered by microscopic jets and pressure chambers hidden within its plum armor.

Shadow hesitated before he took the bracer. Once he slid it on, he stared.

Cosmo was immediately curious. "What _are_ you?" She asked quickly.

"Aha! You ask the infamous question! I am Xavier, model number XT-421 of the Rinocian Empire, I am a fully sentient, artificial intelligent lifeform on a mission to heal the hearts of lovers throughout existence!"

"Lovers..." Cosmo's face perked up upon realizing his mission. "You're here to bring me and Tails together?"

"Ohohoho! She's a smart one! You see little Cosmo, while I know that you and Tails care for each other very much, and that you long to be with one another, I feel that that is too easy. Last time I did this, or, rather... allow me to explain. I am an interdimensional being. I exist in multiple places at once, and I can go anywhere I want, whenever I want, to whenever I want with whomever I want to go when and where with." XT stated in a matter of factly tone. "I got word from a future version of my daughter that the relationship between you and Tails deteriorates in a massive war. I wasn't allowed to know the details, paradox and whatnot, but, you see my predicament, correct?" Cosmo nodded wearily at the influx of information, "So, I came back. The other Cosmo in the other dimension in the other time is trying to make her peace with her Tails as time drags on, but this Cosmo, you, has yet to embark on _her_ trip to join with _her_ Tails in _her _timeline."

"So, I do get with Tails?"

"In another dimension, yes." XT smiled. "I know this is difficult to understand, but trust me, I'm _not_ a loony toon. I know _exactly_ what I'm talking about." Shadow just stared incredulously. "Don't give me that look, I'm thousands of years older than you." XT glared.

"So wait, let's cut to the point, are you going to help us or not?" Shadow demanded.

"Don't be so hasty!" He chuckled, "Do you have anywhere else you need to be? You're both dead to the populace! No one knows you're both alive!" XT proclaimed joyously. "Don't take this personally, Cosmo, but I am worried for this relationship between you and Tails. I mean, you're both young, you're both children, are you sure he's the one for you? I don't know exactly.

"I don't need to analyze your mental composition to know what you're thinking; you are dead set at getting Tails with you in the end. That's fine by me. But, I want you to _show _your love for him. Can you do it? I mean, I could just build a machine to send you back to Mobius, crash land in the spot you first met Tails, and have you two meet in the middle of the air, hugging each other in blissful, youthful, innocent love, but I personally think that sending 9 year old girls with ageless, heartless killers on treks across the galaxy is _loads_ more fun!" Shadow cocked an eyebrow at this machine, apparently, time travel has side effects.

"So... you're not going to help us?" Cosmo looked panicked.

"I am!" XT chirped excitedly. "But, I'm only going to help you a little bit, because I want to see the drama unfold! I will bring you to the nearest planet, and then I will disappear. I'll come back in a year or so to see if you lived or not, using my little biosphere monitor, watching the timeline of this area unfold."

"You want to see her get home, but don't care if she lives?" Shadow asked, disgusted at the robot's lack of humanity.

"Not true! I don't want harm to come to her! But, if she dies, oh well. I can go back in time to this exact moment and restart the whole tale over again, waiting for you two to finally get it right! It may take an eternity, but I'm ready to wait, and I'm _sure_ you'll get it eventually!"

XT gently pushed on their backs, casually speeding up to ridiculous speeds. In space, with no friction, it felt like they were barely moving. But as the stars began to elongate due to the speed, they realized they were traveling very fast.

"There it is, the nearest planet!" XT happily announced. He zoomed in front of both Shadow and Cosmo, and pressed against them, decelerating them drastically before entering the planet's orbit.

From space, the vast, dead forests offered a morbid, dull feeling, depressing Cosmo and of course, not outwardly affecting Shadow.

"Pleasant place, eh?" XT chuckled as he let them hang on to him as his wings and rockets made the drop to the surface a slow parachute ride.

"Thank you, XT, for getting us out of that predicament." Cosmo bowed graciously, Shadow did not respond.

"Don't thank me," XT's smile appeared yet again, "I simply moved you from one problem to the next. Sadly, a life on the run is fraught with danger and uncertainty. Ooh! It'll be so much fun to see later!" He giggled, "Toodles!" XT rocketed off into space where he disappeared as a blip of light.

Shadow and Cosmo looked at each other, and then at their surroundings. Cosmo mentally recalled her thankfulness to XT. He dumped them, alone and without food, on an uninhabited, desolate planet.

* * *

**Those of you who read my previous stories obviously picked up on a lot in this first chapter, lol. This story takes place roughly after Seed of Love 6, if my memories do not betray me.**

**Ok, so, my updates will be a little scarce, and definitely sporadic. (If I say "Oh! I'll get this updated next week!" DO NOT LISTEN TO ME! I will be suffering a mental lapse if ever I say that. My word is unreliable.) But, the chapters SHOULD be huge (15+ pages each time, I think.) And you'll find out why sooner than later, I'd imagine.**

**Also, as a side note, this story is to be read in tandem with it's twin, written by another fellow named Twilitbeing. His story, (named "Second Iteration") is found on the Tails and Cosmo Shrine in the fanfiction section. (Use google.) His story and my story both spanned from the same writing prompt "What would happen if Cosmo actually didn't die in the explosion, or was actually brought to life and was right next to Shadow when she woke up?" Or something like that. Our stories are closely knit in the beginning, and (hypothetically) will drift far from each other as it continues, just to see how two writing styles can alter a plotflow, or, at least, that is my take on it.**

**Well! I'll be seeing y'all later, hopefully!**


	2. Planet Greengate

**Sorry folks, fans, and my one favorite special guest ;) I've kept you waiting I have! My sincerest apologies. Hypothetically, now that my buddy and I are working in tandem on this porject again, it will begin rolling again. I have plans, they are good, it is fabulous. I am excited, I think you all should be too. This story is going to be pretty freaking awesome.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

"I know this place..." Cosmo murmured.

Shadow nodded, recognizing it immediately.

"Weren't we-"

"Before you make an idiot of yourself, yes. You've been here before. This is the homeworld of the Seedrians. Planet Greengate." Shadow sighed, agitated as always.

Cosmo looked at Shadow, hurt, and looked down. "Sorry..." She whispered.

Shadow ignored her apology and took a step from the stationary position he was in before XT brought them there. He felt weak. Clenching his fists tighter, he took more steps into the dead jungle, and concentrated on his breathing, averting any pain he might've felt.

Cosmo stood there, her feelings all mixed up. She was scared for her situation. She was trapped on an abandoned planet, with no known way to get out, with a ruthless killer who had tried to murder her before as her only company. Not even plants were here to comfort her.

She was happy too. Shadow and Sonic risked their lives to bring her back. Now that she was back, she was in the same realm as Tails. That comforted her. She wanted to go back to him very badly. _He must be so upset... if he does love me... he... he would be very sad._

She heard a twig snap as Shadow disappeared in the wood in front of her.

"Shadow! Wait up!" She dashed after him.

Shadow felt her presence right next to him as he pushed back the dead branches and vines in his way. _Why is she following me?_

"Shadow? Where are we going?" Cosmo asked.

"Where do you get the delusion that I'm taking you anywhere?" Shadow nearly growled it to her. Cosmo cringed backwards. _Perhaps he isn't on my side..._

"Well, I... uh... I can't survive on my own... I needed someone to help me get back home."

"I really don't care." Shadow answered honestly.

Cosmo stood, stunned and hurt yet again. It felt like her very heart was bleeding at this verbal cruelty.

"Wh-what?"

"I don't care what happens to you."

"Why not? Didn't you save my life?" Cosmo's eyes started watering.

"Sonic wanted help, I was the only person able to do so. He wanted you alive, I could care less. You alone nearly compromised my mission to destroy the Metarex."

Cosmo fell to her knees. This was too much for her.

Shadow looked down at her, his face as unmoving as ever, and he continued walking.

"No." Cosmo cried. "I helped you." She got up and continued following Shadow's small wake of moved plants.

Shadow said nothing.

"I helped you destroy the Metarex by stopping Dark Oak. I died to help you. Can't you at least help me get back to Tails?" Cosmo still had tears in her eyes.

Shadow stopped and turned.

"If I had any debt to you, I returned the favor by bringing you back to life." Shadow silenced himself and kept moving, his energy still weak.

"Can you at least bring me with you, wherever you're going? Where even are you going?"

"Off this planet." Shadow answered.

"How?"

Shadow stopped walking once again, and turned to Cosmo, making her feel insignificant and foolish with his exasperated voice. "This is your home planet. It was once home to a highly technological race. The Metarex built themselves here, and your mother fled with the Seedrians from here. In the main city, there will be a way to get off this planet."

Shadow's voice abruptly quit, he turned, and kept walking.

Cosmo, in fear of being talked down to again, closed her mouth and kept walking alongside Shadow, trying to keep up with his tiring pace.

As the pressed onwards, following what Shadow perceived as an out-of-date energy transport tube back to its hub, Cosmo noted the small voices all around her. The plants, though dead, were coming back to life.

"Shadow... did the planet eggs all get returned?"

"Presumably." Shadow's lack of interest in talking was strikingly apparent.

Cosmo thought for a moment, and wondered aloud. "Do you think... that because the plants are coming back to life, the animals are coming back to life?"

Shadow continued walking as he contemplated an answer.

"I doubt it. Plants always come before animals."

"Hmm..." Cosmo's train of thought was very expressive.

Shadow rolled his eyes, agitated as always, and flicked a dying branch away as he stepped through the brush.

"Ah..." He muttered as he came into a large clearing.

"What is it, Shad- Oh." Cosmo's eyes opened wide as she took in the vast sight.

It was a sad one, but a glorious one. The remains of a majestic city, its walls, once eggshell white now tarnished and cracked with vines, dead from years without nourishment, covering them foundation to roof. Windows were shattered, holes from assault present, and rubble lay all around, including even the mounds of decayed flesh from mutated males from Cosmo's species and countless scraps of downed ships.

Shadow smirked.

"How can you smile?" Cosmo seethed, "This was a massacre..."

"Little Cosmo, you fail to see what it _is_." Shadow commented, walking forwards towards the dead battleground.

"What is it, then?" Cosmo asked, her emotions set aside to be humble.

"Our way out."

Cosmo looked around, and did not see what Shadow said he saw. "How?"

Shadow declined to answer, and began inspecting the downed ships in the area.

* * *

His energy had partially come back to him. With only one stopper on his arm, it was a chore to not overwork himself. If he let himself walk too fast or move something too heavy, he knew he would lose any and all energy he'd built up over the course of an hour, and collapse in seconds.

Shadow sat down promptly after looking at what he had to work with, and he was moderately pleased. Many wings, many hulls, and he had just found a collection of tools.

"Shadow, I don't see a working ship anywhere." Cosmo whined, trying her best not to agitate him.

"We have to build one." Shadow stated.

"But Tails isn't-"

"I don't need Tails to build a ship." Shadow retorted. "I can use tools too, and I can take parts of each ship and fuse them together. It won't be pretty, but it will work."

"Do you need help?" Cosmo asked, seeing that a chance to prove herself useful was drawing near.

Shadow hesitated. _No, I do not need help. However... I can't lift this stuff by myself... _

"Well, if I say yes, will you do _exactly_ as I say, and restrain yourself from dawdling and work diligently?"

"Of course!" Cosmo chirped.

_Oh dear, _"I need you to cut away large strips of metal from the ships nearby using this laser, careful, it will burn you if you touch it. Then, I need to take the large strips of metal, and bring them here to this area." Shadow pointed to a large open space, possibly a town square at one point in time.

"Ok!" Cosmo gladly accepted the small laser and pranced off to the ship graveyard.

Shadow watched her skip off with foreign enthusiasm, and sighed, shaking his head. _She's going to be crying for help in ten minutes._

* * *

Cosmo stood at an awkward angle on top of the hull of an ancient airship. She contemplated her mission.

"So I have to cut a strip of metal off, and take it to the clearing?" Cosmo looked down, it was a ten foot drop to the ground, and there was nothing to support her.

Turning on the laser cutter, she pointed at the hull beneath her, and tried to aim it down to the base. The heat worked for about three feet, and then died out, leaving a crooked line a third of the way down.

Cosmo sighed, and turned the laser off. She wiggled her way down to the edge, and made a four foot incision across the top, starting on a new section of clean metal. She then eased her way downwards on the vertical slope, hoping to take a line of the metal down with the laser in her hand.

_BZZZZT_

"AAUGGGH!"

_THUMP_

_SSSSSSSSSSS_

"AAAAAAAUGGGGGGH!"

Cosmo rolled around rapidly to put out the fire. Somehow, the laser pointed at her when she fell. The line she made was clean and relatively straight, but she slipped somewhere, and the laser eventually burned her.

Cosmo stood up, and sighed, tears in her eyes at her difficult job, and clambered back up the dilapidated edge to get back up to the top.

* * *

Shadow glanced over his shoulder at the giant ship Cosmo was trying miserably to dismantle, and shook his head.

"At least she's trying." He sighed.

Shadow walked around briskly, almost too much so. He was objective and to the point, and his actions mimicked this trait. In no time at all, precious metals had been located and gathered at the town square. Paled, gold materials, and faintly glowing baubles amassed quickly in this pile. Anything Shadow thought could be modified into a power source.

In about a minute, the pile was about half as tall as he was, shining and flickering. In his searching, he found a few dilapidated engines. Some were beyond repair, but others looked hopeful.

He sat down silently at the pile.

_Priorities. I need priorities established. I need to get off this planet. To do that, I need to build a ship. That will take a lot of time, and a lot of energy. I need materials, which I have, but I need energy, which I don't. Before I go about fixing an engine and a ship, I need to have a temporary power bracer on my other wrist._

Shadow breathed slowly. He was grateful; he _knew_ how to do that.

First, using a few cables and a simple, hastily made construct, he began testing some of the alien devices for energy.

* * *

Cosmo smiled triumphantly. One strip was down.

"Now what?" She wondered aloud.

She recalled she was supposed to take it to the town square. _But how?_

Cosmo reached for the edge and pulled hard. Gritting her teeth, she exerted as much force as she could, but the slab hardly budged.

"I can't do it!" She cried out.

Shadow heard this and shouted back.

"Then give up!" He growled angrily. "Give up, and die. If you can't pull your own weight around here, I have no use for you."

Cosmo fell down and sobbed quietly.

Tails was always so kind to her, kind and helpful. Shadow was cold and harsh and rude. He spoke the truth though. Cosmo bit her lip and this and fell down on her side, shaking a bit and crying to herself.

Shadow neither heard her, nor wanted to.

_C'mon Cosmo... pull yourself together. _She told herself, _Tails needs you. You need to be strong, for him. That robot said that I needed to show it. Oh! Tails! I can see you again if I help Mister Shadow build this ship! I'm coming Tails!_

Cosmo looked up and sat herself upright. Alone, she wiped the tears from her eyes and rose upwards.

This task was too big for her, but perhaps there was something else she could do.

_Ok. What does one need for a ship? We're going to fly into space. I don't know much about spaceships, but I imagine they'll need rockets and rocket fuel. I... I remember Tails telling me something about space travel... Oh! It was a lot of nonsense at the time! Think Cosmo! Think! Something about propellers not working in space... wings too... something about friction._

_We need small jets!_

"Shadow?" Cosmo asked curiously, "have you found any rockets yet?"

"A few engines, yes." Shadow answered, not looking up from his work.

Cosmo approached him. "I remember Tails saying that space travel can only work with rockets."

"Your point?" Shadow was still grumpy.

"Well, we need really small jets to make the small calculations, right?"

"I guess that is a correct assumption. Why are you telling me this?" Shadow looked up to see Cosmo's determined gaze.

"I want to go off and try to find small rocket engines. We'll need them is something bad happens, like a battle."

_Battle? _Shadow froze. He didn't even contemplate making a battle-ready ship. _Best not even bother mentioning that to her. She begs a valid point anyways. A ship without fine-navigation is doomed in space. Little rockets at the nose of the ship will allow it to maneuver more smoothly in space._

"It's a good idea. Go find some. You know what they look like, right?" Shadow made sure she wasn't going to wander off without a clear idea of what she was doing.

"Yes, Tails told me they were located in the front end of a ship to help it move around better." Cosmo skipped off happily, she did something smart.

_Perhaps she isn't without use after all._ Shadow let loose a breath of air as he finished his bracer.

It was crude, it was silver, it was ugly. But it worked.

Placing it on his right arm was like the first gasp of air after being submerged for an hour. Smirking a bit, he gathered his strength, and headed over to the strip Cosmo left behind to lug it over to the middle of the town square.

* * *

Cosmo meandered around, glancing about ships to see if they had any parts she could easily manage. She found few. Shadow had done a thorough job. Cosmo wandered into a building, a small exploration out of boredom and unproductive activities.

In her small travels, she found a curious room. Rusted cooking utensils, a cracked sink with faintly dripping water, chipped dishes, and what looked to be a cupboard of food.

Instantly her stomach growled. Red color leaped to her cheeks in embarrassment as she held her stomach hopelessly.

"It feels like I haven't eaten in weeks..." Cosmo moaned. It had been a few hours since they landed on the planet.

Cosmo looked outside to see a setting sun. It was noon when they first arrived, so her assumption on how long they had been here was fairly accurate.

"Perhaps... perhaps Shadow will want something to eat? Besides... if it is getting dark, maybe animals will be out and about, savage creatures like my sisters spoke about from the time before I was born..." Cosmo shivered.

Hastily, she walked back into the town square.

* * *

Shadow could help but be proud of himself. A few beams of tough metal were welded together already, forming the skeleton of a ship to come. This was the easiest part, of course, but it was a start. Space travel would certainly be possible.

He sighed. However promising it did seem, complications kept being calculated into his head. He didn't like the look of everything.

"Shadow! Shadow!" Cosmo called in a hushed yell.

Shadow turned to acknowledge her, but said nothing. An exasperated look remained on his face. _Thank heavens I attached that power bracer... She'll drain my energy faster than a battle with Sonic._

"I just thought of something!" She chirped quietly.

"And this thought is?"

"Well, we've been up for awhile, and I'm really hungry, and I just found a place with some food, and I thought it would be a good time for a rest."

"I don't rest." Shadow cut in sharply.

Cosmo was silent. "Well, you aren't at your fullest capacity, right? You just lost most of your energy bringing me to life and whatnot. Food would help you recover some energy, and sleep would help you even more."

"Ok." Shadow dropped his tools and approached Cosmo in the condescending way he knew how to. In an instant she felt insignificant and stupid. "I suffer from chronic insomnia, a disorder that prevents regular, healthy sleep. I sleep roughly 10 hours a week, maybe. I don't eat much either. And, when I do eat, I refuse other's cooking in favor of my own."

"I didn't know you could cook." Cosmo mused.

"I live alone. How else am I expected to feed myself?" Shadow responded coldly.

"You could cook. There are cooking materials and foodstuffs in a building over there." Cosmo pointed, "besides, what if something's out here? I'd rather be hidden than out in the open..."

"This planet is dead Cosmo, like the races that inhabited it-" Shadow stopped, but the words already slid out of his mouth. He knew exactly what he said, and realized the repercussions.

In moments Cosmo began crying. She fell to her knees and sobbed violently. Shadow looked down upon her. He felt something. It was a little strange tingle, not felt in a long, long time. It wasn't pity, per se, just a fleeting emotion, one of the few.

Mechanically, he knew that he had hurt her, and that he was the cause of her crying. Talking wouldn't help, he knew this much, she would only become more upset. The only way to get her to stop crying, which was bothering the hell out of him at the moment, was to do something kind to her, right a wrong.

Shadow, with one large heave, hoisted Cosmo up onto his shoulder, and walked swiftly towards the building Cosmo pointed towards. Food in her belly would alleviate her emotional instability.

The moment Cosmo was in the air, she stopped wailing, though the tears still poured. She sniffled, and realized that Shadow was bringing her back into the building. Shadow's keen sense of smell brought him to the dismal kitchen in a flash. After setting Cosmo on the table, albeit a bit roughly, he began to get to work.

His supercharged muscled diced a few dried, packaged vegetables in a matter of seconds while his other hand mechanically began to set the stove to heat to boil some water that was already filling a pot that had been grabbed a microsecond beforehand. As the diced vegetables were sitting in the heating water, Shadow darted around for a few paltry spices that his nose had sniffed out, and he minced them in a timely fashion before adding them to the pot. In a moment's notice, he had vanished again, to the other side of the room, grabbing a crusty piece of bread. Setting the oven to bake to test its heating capabilities, he peered into the cold storage, where, miraculously enough, a small stick of butter had gone mostly unspoiled. Grabbing a knife, he peeled away layers of unsanitary butter leaving a small stick, which was applied promptly to the bread, and then soaked into the vegetables. Plopping the half-loaf on a plate in the oven, he turned around, nothing to do but wait.

Cosmo blinked, and missed half of it.

"Did you just-"

"Eat up," Shadow handed her a bowl of steamed vegetables and a toasty piece of bread, "You've had a long day."

Cosmo looked at her meal with awe and wonder. Shadow was an astounding chef.

"If you need me," Shadow said, looking at her firmly, "I will be in the town square building the ship. I suggest you sleep, you're of no use tired and hungry." Shadow strode away leaving Cosmo alone in the room.

Cosmo nibbled on her food, it wasn't terrible, but it certainly wasn't great. She shivered at the thought of the food that she herself would've cooked.

After her meal was consumed thoughtlessly and hungrily, she curled up on the table and slept without a sound, heavy as a rock.

* * *

Cosmo rubbed her eyes slowly as she woke up in the morning. Actually, she had no clue what time it was, only that she felt much better than the previous night before. She stretched, yawned, and got off of the table that she had fallen asleep on. Mysteriously, she woke up in a crude bed with a blanket, this was a little disturbing.

_Perhaps Shadow helped? It may be a little off character, but... he can act nice sometimes._

"I should go find him..." She mumbled aloud, "see what is going on."

As she approached the town square, she gasped; before her stood the shell of a spaceship. It was small, about the size of Tail's X-Tornado. Compared to the mighty Blue Typhoon, this thing was a dinghy. But, it was looking more space-worthy than before, so it was much improved.

"Good morning Shadow." Cosmo sung as she skipped to the ship, her hopes lightened.

Shadow grumbled from underneath the ship, he was tampering with something.

"By the end of tomorrow, I think it will be done." He said, skating from underneath it.

"That's great!" Cosmo smiled excitedly. "What should I do?"

Shadow was silent, and he scowled in thought.

"The outside of the ship is mostly done. This is half of the battle. The engines work, I tested the little ones and one of the big ones is perfectly fine in functionality, which is pretty remarkable, actually. The inner circuits are a problem though, I need a working computer to modify. I also need wires." Shadow dove into the toolbox, and shuffled around for something. "Here, take these, go into some of the bigger ships and snip the largest wires you can, the insulation should stop you from being electrocuted."

"Ok." Cosmo smiled as she took the shears.

"And Cosmo," Shadow added as she wandered off, "I don't know what you'll find _inside_ the ships. Try not to think about whatever it is you see."

Cosmo froze, the realization sunk in. These ships were ghost ships. Her ancestors died aboard them, and her ancestor's enemies. It was unlikely that the rotted corpses of her sister's parents would have been moved over the centuries.

Her arms shook as she wandered towards one of the main ships.

Steadily, she entered the main chamber through a hole in the hull. A musty air filled her nasal cavities as she walked hastily, guided by an unseen hand, towards the control room. She recalled, from her most distant memories, that the control rooms were often hubs of vast computers, and were commonly kept at the top or center of a ship. Beneath her feet, squishy mushing could be heard. It was unnerving.

No doubt, after being struck down by a low orbiting foe, the ship came down in flames. Panicked, the crew would have done everything they could to cause the least amount of damage to their home. They would have been running to and fro, everyone, everywhere. Their bodies would've been killed, either smashed by gravity, or burnt by the aftermath, wherever they were standing seconds before.

And Cosmo was going to the control room.

Blankly, she tried not to look down. She knew the clothing pattern of seedrians, and this one definitely one of their ships. _Cables_, she thought, _cables will be in the main control room._ She reached the main doors, and she pushed them open to squeeze into it.

She entered, and let loose a cry of despair. Atop the seats before every computer, the withered skeleton of a Seedrian, male or female, resided. Cosmo didn't know anyone, they would've died before she was born, even had they lived through the war, but that didn't stop her from feeling an intense empathy for each soul killed aboard this once mighty vessel. And she, a pirate, was coming to rob this tomb of its technological treasures.

She felt terrible, rotten to the core.

She bowed and clasped her hands together, scissors at her sides. "Thank you, my ancestors, for fighting for a tomorrow that would not have come without you. Bear me no ill feelings as I try to salvage this ship."

No animal could've felt it, but the air itself breathed a sigh of relief at Cosmo's heart-spoken words. Carefully, she moved some of the skeletons to hack away at the cables and cords from each computer.

* * *

Shadow had to admit it. When he saw Cosmo emerge from the battleship with an entire cartload of technological goodies, he was triply impressed. Impressed that Cosmo had enough savvy to find usable materials, that she was able to go in despite her fears, and that she managed to improvise a way of getting them all out. She had pillaged together an old service cart from the battleship to stash her hackneyed wires, and there were a lot of them.

"Good. Now, if I may," Shadow accepted the donation of wires and went to work immediately. The shell of the ship was completed, engines and hull, even a few windows where were forged by Shadow himself. It lacked a sealing door still, but that didn't need to be added until the end. Storage was complete, and all the needed to be finished was the wiring and computer programming, floorboards, and a power source.

On that note, Shadow conceived the notion that Cosmo should find it.

"Cosmo, it needs a power source. This planet is very dead still, and you and I are probably the most active things on the planet. I need an idea for power, either solar panels, reactors, whatever you can find. You understand seedrian technology more than I do. If you can find a power source, this ship can be space-ready by morning, and it'll be finished far ahead of schedule."

Cosmo beamed. "I'm on it!" She pranced away, leaving Shadow to wiring the ship up.

Shadow's face remained set in stone as he worked. Hastily, the wires were linked to the primary and auxiliary engines. The ship was puny, and hardly spaceworthy. _But_, Shadow reasoned, _it will get me from point A to point B, no questions asked._

No heating, and no lighting. The only light the ship would have was from the stars in sight from its few port, starboard, and frontal viewports, and the only heat it would have was from its burning engines. Cosmo was going to have a fit; it was going to get really cold up there.

_Actually, that works well. She'll go into a cryonic sleep for a weeks or so up there if the cold gets to her. We'd save food, and she wouldn't whine._ Shadow smirked. When explaining the plan, he thought it best that he'd keep that detail from her.

Still with a scowl on his face, he continued welding.

* * *

Cosmo knew, internally, that she wasn't going to be able to find a power source. She had no idea what one looked like, only that it made things move, flicker, or make noises. As far as she knew, nothing on the planet save Shadow and her did anything like that.

So, she wandered into buildings, half to find useful tools for survival, and half in a dream-like boredom. She dully imagined the state of the citizens before they died, and the panic her ancestors must have felt. It troubled her deeply.

Carefully, she entered one of the intact buildings. Once inside, she began to wonder about life inside.

Never before had she actually lived in an establishment like this. Always, for as long as she could know, she was on the run. It was a large facility, quite like the Blue Typhoon only stationary. Multiple living quarters were bundled side by side, guarded by hinging doors, most of which were cracked open or otherwise damaged. She entered one with piqued curiosity.

A single bed, a dresser, a closet full of clothes and portable clothe-storing devices, all of these things seemed trivial in a post apocalyptic world. Cosmo opened one of the suitcases. She'd never seen something exactly like it before. It was a novel idea. A few clothes were stored within, she picked one up, and it crumbled in her hands. The world was dead, and so was everything in it.

Cosmo sat on the burnt, dusty bed and sighed. This life was extraordinarily depressing already. She looked at the bedside table. A clock, the time fizzled out, remained mostly unscathed.

"A radio clock... hmm..." Cosmo suddenly opened her eyes wide with excitement and realization. "The plug in the wall led somewhere! I'll need Shadow's help, but we could find the power plant, it would be nearby, and we could repair it and get it to power the ship!" Cosmo clapped excitedly. "Then this little clock would be able to... work... again... radio clock... radio..." Cosmo bit her lip in thought.

_Tails... He- he doesn't know that I am alive... maybe... just maybe I could..._ Cosmo picked up the radio clock and inspected it. She cracked the top of it off with a little work, and peered inside. Tails told her about radio awhile back. It was a few months ago, but she was able to recall it fairly well. If she could figure out how to send a radio signal, _then maybe I could contact Tails and tell him that I'm alright!_ Determined, she began with her distractive project.

Hours passed. The sun was setting. Shadow stood atop the ship, his arms folded. He was angry. Cosmo should've been back now, either to report that she couldn't find a power source, or that she did indeed find one.

He hopped down off the ship, and marched forwards in the direction he recalled Cosmo wandering off in. He was stopped promptly by Cosmo's appearance out of a building down the way. She strolled outwards with a shawl over her, wrapped in a tattered bedsheet. In her arm was a suitcase.

"If she packed clothes..." Shadow muttered angrily, his fists tightened and he strode over to her.

"Hello Shadow! I think I know how to find a power source." Cosmo smiled.

"If we could harvest your mind's ability to wander off and forget your mission, then we'd have a ship able to reach Mobius in a week." Shadow growled lowly.

Cosmo, only hearing 'reach Mobius in a week,' clapped her hands excitedly, "Really?"

Shadow let loose a controlled sigh, obviously venting his frustration.

"How are we going to find this power source?" Shadow changed the painful topic.

"Ooh! Well, when I was in the building, I noticed a socket in the wall. I'm no civil engineer, but, the energy that would've been going to those sockets _must_ come from somewhere, and it would be impractical to have it outside the city limits, right? So, there would have to be a downed power plant _somewhere_ in the city." Cosmo looked at Shadow hesitantly, awaiting approval or denial of her idea.

Shadow nodded his head slowly. "Unless they mastered a way of sending energy wirelessly... you are exactly right..." Shadow looked around. "An aerial view would yield a better vantage point..." Shadow dashed away.

Cosmo saw the yellow blur fly up a building and rest at its top. A black figure, a few hundred feet in the air, stoop perched atop the building.

"Cosmo, come up here as quickly as you can, I want you to see this." Shadow urged sternly.

Cosmo, realizing that she could not run up a wall with her limited speed, rushed into the building and climbed the flights of stairs to reach the roof. The building's stairs weren't perfectly structurally stable. Her light weighted body allowed her to ignore the almost crumbling stairs and make it to the roof quickly.

"Wow... this city... is so sad..." Bulbous towers stood erect from the ground occasionally, and many towers lay on the ground, crumbled.

It was a beautifully somber wasteland of dead technology.

"Your ancestors lived here. Do you recall anything familiar? The layout of your space cruiser was undoubtedly designed with similarities to cities."

"Mother always said they bombed the planet to rid themselves of traitors and other enemies." Cosmo murmured, "I don't think she would've wanted the spaceship to be like the cities."

"Then... this must be an older Seedrian city. Advanced weaponry would've decimated this city, and therefore, they didn't attack it. The primary cities will be destroyed, no use looking for a better one..." Shadow closed his eyes, arms folded.

"That line, over there," Cosmo absentmindedly asked, pointing into the distance, "where does it go?"

Shadow opened his eyes, tracing her finger into the horizon. His breathing almost allowed the emotion of excitement to escape his mind, but he squelched it. "It appears you've found the missing power plant Cosmo."

* * *

In the horizon, a small building, low to the ground, could be seen. Dim lights still emanated from its core.

It didn't take more than a half hour to get there. The inside was a large atrium, and the floor beneath revealed a massive generator. Though the cogs weren't moving, and few lights were on, it wasn't difficult to see that light was in fact exiting from somewhere below.

Shadow darted into the basement to see how to fix the generator, and Cosmo stayed on the first floor, wandering around.

Cosmo glanced up. A towering pillar of technology stood before her. It was, in many senses, a mechanical representation of a tree. Its roots stuck into the metal gratings below, and tapped into some faintly whirring power source, and its branches stretched outwards and upwards, away from the core of the building, fusing with the roof, canopy, above her head. She awed at this. Her ancestors were capable of fusing their love for nature into a modern era of technology.

Cosmo knelt down for a small whisper to her ancestors. Greif, regret, and remorse for their eradication entered her heart. She recalled how close to her own death she came, back before she met Tails, and how she selfishly begged for life at the expense of her people. The guilt was overwhelming.

Cosmo was awakened from her mental ravings by a flash of light by a machine nearby.

"This world is dead. Leave it in peace." A voice spoke out.

Cosmo's eyes widened. "Mother!"

Shadow appeared on deck to view the holographic image of Hertia, Cosmo's mother, relaying the past history of the planet to the adventurers who mistakenly landed on Greengate.

He leaned in, as if not to intrude on Cosmo's trance with her mother. "Cosmo, we should leave. I've hooked up a makeshift battery to this generator. As the reactor runs, it fuels the ship."

"Oh… ok." Cosmo murmured.

Quietly, the two left the dead reactor, heading back to the ship.

"Do you want anything to eat?" Shadow offered, the moment they entered the broken building.

"No thank you, I'm not very hungry…" Cosmo replied, unenthused with the rest of the world. Her mother's words hit her hard.

Shadow stared at her blankly, sighed, stood up and left the room. It didn't take much to read her. All of her emotions were visible to the world. _How foolish… It is so easy to be taken advantage of when your emotions are so easily exposed._ Shadow spitefully thought.

Cosmo looked at the space where Shadow was, and scrunched her brow. Something wasn't right about him. She couldn't quite pinpoint it, but there was definitely something.

She opened her stolen suitcase and fumbled with the trinkets she kept within it. A few clothes, still wrapped in a silly plastic covering had been saved. She now had three extra outfits to wear other than her very worn green outfit. She mentally had complained about the clothes not fitting, or matching with her hair or eyes, but, she gave up her initial disposition against them under the looming truth that she needed clothes all the same. She was unsure as to how long she'd be away from Mobius, or any other civilized planet, and her clothing was bound to wear and soil as she abused it.

Also stashed within the suitcase was the warm white blanket. It was dusty with debris, but she had mostly shaken it out. She liked it more than her clothes because it was fuzzy and reminded her mildly of Tails' fur.

The last thing in her suitcase was her broken radio. This reminded her to go to Shadow.

"Hey Shadow?" She asked loud enough to attract his attention.

Shadow materialized beyond the door in front of her. "Yes?"

"I would like some help with this little project I am working on." She showed him the radio.

"Why do you want to repair this?"

"I don't. I... well, I want to turn it into a sender, not a receiver. So I can send a message to Tails. He doesn't know I'm alive!" She looked at him.

"Your motivation is misplaced, but the idea is a good one all the same. If I may, I will take this back to the square and modify it slightly so that it send a distress signal-"

"Can I speak into it though? I want Tails to know it's me."

Shadow was about to deny her, but still felt a twang of emotion, guilt, for when he called her race extinct. "You may if you do so desire." He took the box and began to leave, "While I'm gone, check on the battery. Soon it should be full, and when it is, I want you to unhooked it carefully, and bring it back on that cart you put together, understand? It's easy, so I don't think you'll screw up."

"Ok." Cosmo said, mildly dejected. He had put her down again.

Shadow left, and Cosmo sat in the main room watching the reactor fill up the rather large battery. Pouty, she huddled into her blanket and waited for it to finish filling up.

* * *

It took Shadow about ten minutes to repair the radio with the extra wires Cosmo had brought him. Now there was a small, very small, solar panel that generated electricity for the device as it was open to the sun. All one had to do to speak through the radio waves was to hold the clock button and speak. If the antenna was up and pointed in a good direction, _maybe_ someone would find it.

Shadow took the rest of the time to make some finishing touches to the ship, and then admired it.

Three engines, two on the sides, one on the top, of a small hull. It was speckled with flecks of camouflage; possibly, the main fuselage was a tank. This claim, that the fuselage was once part of a tank, was consistent with its size and, possibly, shape. A bottom slab had been removed for the path in and out of the ship, especially for taking in cargo, more specifically, spare parts and the main battery. The nose was cramped with computers and paltry control panels. Shadow, while piloting, would have to do everything manually until the ship ran out of fuel.

He paused, did some mathematical calculations, sized up the ships, and ran the numbers again. There was no way they were getting back to Mobius in a ship of that size. With a whole reactor, he knew he could do better. The dwindling food supply of this planet urged him on, but Cosmo had managed to find food. It wouldn't be too much of a problem to stay. We began to plan building a second ship, a larger one, just so they could make it back home quicker.

* * *

Cosmo was now heading back to the square when it happened.

*_SNAP_*

Cosmo, battery packed, stopped dead in her tracks. Her eyes filled with fear and her pupils shrunk to the size of pixels. Voices, from the trees, swelled in her head.

_Not safe._

_Things..._

_Moving..._

Cosmo was so paralyzed with fear, she was unable to move. Her hearing tripled, honing in on whatever made that sound. Her breathing picked up, though she tried to repress it. Her heart began beating, faster and faster with each moment sequencing the snap.

Consciously, she tried to think, '_there's nothing living on this planet besides Shadow and I, so... it must be Shadow playing a trick on me.'_

She knew, somewhere deep down within her though, that Shadow was not the trickster type, and that there were in fact living things on this planet. The trees were evidence enough.

"Sh-Sh-Sh-Sh-" She stammered quietly, as a large dark mass lumbered past a tree and into view for just a brief second. Immediately, her vision was oriented to that location.

A growl in the trees made her panic further.

"SHADOW!" She screamed as loud as she could, crouching down into fetal position near the cart with the battery.

Just then, something lunged out of the forest, a large, ferocious looking creature. Similar in size and strut to a panther, stalking and lurking, but, its skin and face were more similar to a lizard or a dragon. Its long thick tongue flapped out of its mouth, adorned with numerous rows of inward facing teeth. It stood on Cosmo with its paws, its open mouth dripping saliva onto her, slightly burning her skin. To her, the end was near, again.

Then, the most horrendous sound entered the air. It almost sounded like a buzzsaw ripping through flesh. Following it, the sound of a death entered the night sky. It was only then that Cosmo opened her eyes. Shadow, still in his spin dash mode, was hovering over the corpse of the beast, a hole straight through it, spinning to get the blood off of his fur. It worked surprisingly well.

The second he stopped, he look at Cosmo, analyzing her burns mechanically.

"Well, it doesn't look poisonous... Give it a day and it should-" Cosmo had leapt up and hugged him. "Get off of me!" He pushed her down.

"Shadow... you saved my life." Cosmo said, elated and exhausted.

"I saved the damn battery too. What the hell are you doing, showing careless affection like that? Don't you realize that my very skin could be toxic because of that unknown creature's blood? Very, very many creatures in this galaxy have venomous blood to kill attackers, like me, if they are bit or accidentally slashed. Wipe off your hands, quickly!" Shadow scolded, grabbing the batter cart.

"Oh..." Cosmo said, emotionlessly.

"What are you doing, sitting there like a depressed ragdoll? Follow me! Quickly! This planet is no longer safe."

Cosmo and Shadow hastily began heading back into town.

"We have to leave this planet tomorrow." Shadow grumbled.

"Why?"

"Did you see that creature? I think you were right. Now that the Planet Egg has merged with this world again, dormant or dead creatures are coming back to life. This planet is starting over anew. We have to leave. The creatures here are bound to be violent and ravenous. I'm going to hook this battery up as soon as we get back, and then I will get some sleep, so you'll have to keep watch."

"Why do you want to sleep now of all times?" The two had just entered the city limits.

"Well, there is no autopilot for the ship. I have to manually drive it for the next few days or so."

"It will only take a few days to get back to Mobius?"

Shadow paused, this was the conversation he didn't want to have with her. "Cosmo... we aren't going back to Mobius."

"What? Why?" Cosmo's face immediately fell, and she looked up at Shadow with sorrow in her eyes.

"We don't have enough fuel to drive us for more than a week with this ship. It would take a week to get to Mobius _with_ warp engines. And I'm sure you know warp engines allow travel faster than light. Calculate it out. With this ship, it would take approximately,"

"Thirty... years?" Cosmo quavered.

Shadow nodded.

"Thirty years... before Tails? And... we have to... survive... for 30 years? Living off of desolate planets? Striving for scraps? Oh no... oh _no!_ I... I... I..." Cosmo's lips trembled as the terrible realization overcame her. The robot's voice echoed in her head. _"It may take an eternity"_ The robot was right, she wasn't cut out for this. She would die. "We're going to die before I see him..." She began crying.

"You better not be like this when we're flying, or I'll drop you off on the nearest planet, possibly this one." Shadow warned.

Cosmo wiped her tears, "I-I thought you didn't want me to die?"

"I already told you, I don't care whether you live or die, but, so far, you've been fairly useful. The moment you stop being useful, I will leave you behind."

Cosmo panicked for a moment, but knew it was a weakness Shadow could exploit to ditch her. It was becoming more and more apparent to her that he was a soulless machine who cared only about himself.

But, she needed him to get off the planet.

The moment the duo got back into the square, Shadow set to work. He and Cosmo moved the battery into position under the ship, directly in line with the doors to get on the ship. The battery was heavy, and took all of Shadow's might, and all of Cosmo's, though she barely could exert a tenth of Shadow's strength, to move up into the cargo hold, which was_ just_ snug enough to fit the battery. Shadow went about hooking it up, while Cosmo meandered around, close to the ship, suitcase still in hand.

In her wanderings, she came across the tool that Shadow had used to weld together the ship. She set her suitcase down, and handled the tool. It was something of a torch. A screw near the nozzle allowed control of the size and intensity of the flame. Toy with this on the pieces of scrap metal near the square. On a low heat, she found, she could draw on the metal with the torch by staining it black.

Grinning a bit, she hid her toy from Shadow.

Shadow came out of the cabin twenty minutes later.

"Everything is ready, but I need some rest. Here," he handed her the radio, "press on the clock button, aim the antenna, and talk into the speaker. It will send a signal. But, don't focus on it too much, I need you to wake me if any of the beasts attack us."

The sun had set, and Shadow had pulled up some logs for a fire. Cosmo handed him the torch to light it. The moment the fire was up; Shadow curled up into a ball and fell asleep.

Cosmo waved a hand in front of him to make sure he was asleep. She grinned and took the torch into her own hands, and grabbed a makeshift stool. She smiled as she began to etch a design into the ship.

When she was done, she sat next to Shadow and got out her suit case. She eyed Shadow very, very carefully. She hadn't changed clothes in about 4 days, not taking into consideration the time that she was dead. In short, her clothes were dirty, grungy and beginning to fall apart.

Therefore, she needed to change her outfit.

Rummaging through her suitcase, she found a cute red dress. Similar to her traditional green Seedrian Attire, it came with yellow petals and a silky red material. It may have been a dress for more formal occasions, but it served its purposes well. It was a touch too big around her chest and fell down too far around her knees, brushing up on her ankles.

She quickly removed her all of her clothing, and placed upon herself her new clothes. It felt weird, and it was so loose, and so breezy, that she felt violated. To make matters worse, the crimson dress had no sleeves, which made her shiver in the cool midnight air.

Chilly she bundled up in her white blanket, and shivered the rest of the night until the morning sun crept above the city's horizon.

Shadow awoke with a grimace on his face. He had not slept comfortably. He lifted himself off of the ground, stretched, and saw Cosmo, nodding off in front of a dead fire. He rolled his eyes.

"Ok Cosmo, let's get ready to- what happened to the ship?"

Emblazoned on the side of the hull was the phrase "_Sero et Umbra_".

"Oh, that…" Cosmo mumbled, grabbing her blanket and stuffing it into her suitcase with her old clothes, "I thought of it last night. '_Sero et Umbra_' is an ancient Human dialect, a language that Mobian originated from… Latin, I believe, it means _'Of Plant and Shadow'_ which is… Doubly effective, because not only was it built by me and you, but also… it is built from the shadow of the Seedrian society."

"Humpf!" Shadow grunted as he clambered inside.

"No, you see," Cosmo picked up her suitcase and entered the ship too. "Because the Seedrians are the plants, and the shadow is their death."

"I get it." Shadow was glowering at her, "My ship doesn't need a name."

"_Our_ ship. I helped get some of the materials." Cosmo asserted herself back.

Shadow sighed. "Ready?" Spare parts, non-perishable food, and tools were packed into a crate on the other side of Cosmo in the barren cabin. She leaned against a view port, and held onto a support bar while Shadow sat in a command chair.

"Yes." Cosmo answered.

"Ok, we're going." Shadow's hands expertly ran his fingers over the control panels. The ship began to rumble to life.

A few creatures, bigger than the one in the forest, appeared in the viewport that Cosmo was looking out of. They were approaching the ship, possibly attracted to the noise.

"Shadow! Those things are coming!"

Shadow glanced, cussed, and pressed a few more buttons, one hand on something of a control stick. With a grunt, the ship hopped off of the ground and into the sky for a few feet, and then lurched forwards with incredible acceleration. A beast had swung at the tail end of the ship. Cosmo breathed heavily as they ascended into the skies above the homeworld of her species. She noted that it was greener than when she left it.

As the sky dissolved into a starscape, she took in the scene with awe, it was fantastic, no matter how many times she'd seen it. It reminded her of a time when she and Tails stood looking at the stars. He had called them beautiful, then curiously stammered. _Maybe... it wasn't the stars?_

Cosmo blushed a little, and hugged herself, unable to control the ecstacy of telling him she was still alive. She'd wait a lifetime just to hear him say he loved her again.

"Shadow, if you say we only have a few days of flight in space, how will we get anywhere?"

"Space is full of life. I know of a nearby planet that the Blue Typhoon was on, a small meteorite like planet. With any luck, we'll find a fuel source there."

"How far away is it?"

"A week."

"But we only have power for a few days." Cosmo noted.

"Exactly, so I'm going to kill the power once we half exhaust our battery, just drift near it."

Cosmo nodded in understanding.

Twelve minutes went by, and it began to get colder. Cosmo unconsciously fiddled with her suitcase and took out her blanket, bundling herself up as Shadow took crude readings. He was going to aim for something around ten thousand miles away.

"Shadow," Cosmo began, "have you ever loved somebody?" It was getting much colder.

Shadow was silent.

"S-Shadow?" Her teeth began chattering and she was shaking for warmth.

"I don't believe in love." He mumbled.

"Well..." Cosmo was taken aback, yet determined to dredge emotion out of him, "h-have you ev-ever cared for an-an-anyone?"

"I care for my own well being."

"O-Other t-than y-y-y-yourself?" Cosmo's skin began to turn blue as the condensation on the wall began to freeze over.

"Hmm..." Shadow pondered, focusing on maintaining his body temperature at a toasty warmth.

A thud signified to Shadow that Cosmo had fallen into a chilled sleep. He smirked. She wouldn't need feeding, maintaining, or, more importantly, in Shadow's mind, talking to, until they reentered atmosphere somewhere else.

Now he could calculate the trajectory without her annoying him.

* * *

**So! What did you think? Is Shadow's character within reason? The dynamic characterization between Cosmo and him makes up this story, so I hope I am doing it right. Personally, I tried to keep Shadow as "in character" as I could.**

**More coming eventually!**


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